Free Miss Taken by Milly Taiden

“you’re cute” look. She wasn’t stupid. She was more than curvy. She was big. Real big. That meant society placed a different view on larger women like her. From a single glance, they thought she was lazy and ate too much.
    What a lot of her exes came to find out was Kira was an active person. She loved to dance and walk and swim. She didn’t sit around eating to gain weight all the time. That didn’t matter, because when someone who didn’t know her saw her, they judged her based on what they thought all large people did. So she’d stopped caring what others thought. She was a big girl because it was the way it was.
    She’d learned to love herself as a kid. Her mother had taught her to.
    “You must love yourself, Kira. Always. Nobody can show you love if you don’t accept it from yourself first. Never let anyone tell you that you are not beautiful, hija. Everyone is beautiful in their own way.”
    “Papi says I’m too fat. He says I have to lose weight for boys to want me when I grow up.” She held her favorite stuffed animal in a death grip. Her insecurity at an all-time high for an eight-year-old.
    “That’s not true. You are a beautiful girl. You do a lot of sports and you are careful with your meals. You are just bigger because there is more of you to love.” She smiled. “When you meet the man who loves you just as you are, then you know you found the right one.” She patted Kira’s hand. “I love you as you are. Whoever comes into your life will do the same or they will not be worth your love.”
     
    * * *
    She returned to the kitchen after she donned the sweats. The scent of steak sizzling and bread baking made her mouth water.
    “Are you actually baking bread?” she asked. “Like, for real, bread?”
    He laughed at what her face must look like. “Yes. I had taken some rolls out this morning and shoved them in the oven. They’re ready. So is the steak.”
    “You know,” she said, sitting at the already set table, “now I know yesterday wasn’t a fluke. You really do cook.”
    “Why would I lie about cooking?” he asked, confusion clear in his words.
    “Men will say anything that will get them some…er…some.”
    He glanced at her lips and shook his head. “I don’t need to lie to get you naked, Kira. I just remind you how much you enjoy my tongue on your clit. My fingers in your pussy and coming on my face.”
    Okay, yes. That was definitely enough to get her all hot and bothered.
    “Did your mom teach you to cook?” she asked, ignoring his words and hoping he didn’t know she was clenching her thighs together.
    “Yes. When Luna became my father’s mate, she took the mother role,” he said, placing plates with steak on the table and turning to grab the basket with the rolls. “She loved having me in the kitchen and I loved being there with her.”
    He placed a pitcher of lemon water on the table and sat. “I loved her, too. I was a kid and she was my mom. I wanted to spend time with her.” He laughed, the smile changing his face from hot to gorgeous. “My father used to sit at the kitchen table and watch us. He said she was going to turn me into a chef.” He put a roll on his plate and met her gaze. “Secretly, I think he loved seeing us bonding. I didn’t have that before and once Luna was in our lives, our family felt… complete.”
    “She sounds like an amazing woman. She was obviously a good influence on you, not to mention she taught you how to cook.” Kira grinned impishly. “Are you sure she wasn’t grooming you to make a good husband?”
    She smiled at his memory. The image of a little Luke trying to cook made her giggle.
    Luke laughed. “She just might have, I guess we will have to ask her next time she stops by. Trust me, that will be sooner than later. She worries about me and Bastien in these storms.”
    “Bastien and you seem very close.”
    “We are. Luna kind of adopted him as her son, too.”
    “Did you guys grow up here together? I can